Middle Spanish

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Middle Spanish , Spanish español clásico ("classical Spanish"), español áureo ("golden Spanish"), español medio or español del Siglo de Oro , ("Spanish of the Golden Age"), is an era in the history of the Spanish language Transition from old to new Spanish. It is dated between 1450 and 1650. In this phase, many profound changes took hold. Two main varieties of Spanish emerged: on the one hand, Castilian as the standard language in the north and center of the country and, on the other hand, Atlantic Spanish in Andalusia, the Canary Islands and America. Most of the changes have occurred in the area of ​​phonology and morphology. In addition, as a result of numerous borrowings from other European and Amerindian languages , the era is characterized by a strong expansion of the Spanish vocabulary.

The Castilian Norm and Atlantic Spanish

With regard to the debate, different developments took place in the northern and southern halves of Spain. This was mainly due to circumstances outside the language.
In 1561 King Philip II moved his residence from Valladolid to Madrid. The initially small and insignificant city of Madrid grew quickly and became the capital of the country. Most of the population that moved in came from the north ( Burgos and other parts of Old Castile ), so the language of the court came under Old Castilian influence. In this way, phonetic features of Old Castilian became part of the norm and expanded further.
Along with Madrid, Seville in the south of the country was one of the most important cities in Spain. With the beginning of overseas trade, it represented the trading center between Spain and America. Its economic importance also gave the language a high reputation. The prestige of the Sevillian language, but also the geographically remote location of the city, therefore favored its own phonetic development that competed with the court language of Madrid. Since the sea route to America led from Andalusia via the Canary Islands, many characteristics of southern Spanish could also be transferred to these areas. Diego Catalán coined the expression español atlántico ("Atlantic Spanish") for Andalusian , Canarian and American Spanish .

Phonology

The vowels had already developed in Old Spanish . In the 16th and 17th centuries, only a few phonetic fluctuations in the vowel system were reduced (closure of the vowels e and o to i and u in words such as aleviar > aliviar "to ease", roído > ruído "noise"). In contrast, there were profound restructuring in the consonant system. Three important changes originated in the north: the neutralization of the phonemes / b / and / β /, the silence of the so-called aspirated [h] and the development of the sibilants .

Neutralization of the phonemes / b / and / β /

In Old Spanish, a distinction was made between the two phonemes / b / (e.g. b ienes "possession, goods") and / β / (e.g. v ienes "you come"). This contrast was abandoned in Central Spanish. / b / and / β / coincided to the phoneme / b /, which was now pronounced both plosive [b] and fricative [β]. The neutralization of / b / and / β / initially always occurred when they were initial or followed a nasal sound . In these cases, b and v were pronounced plosive [b] (e.g. un b uey "an ox", un v iento "a breeze"). Later, the distinction between the vowels was also omitted, but the pronunciation of the two consonants here was fricative [β] (e.g. no me b axo “I'm not coming down”, no me v oy “I'm not coming”). Just as in today's Spanish, in Middle Spanish the phoneme / b / corresponded to the two letters b and v , which were pronounced plosive [b] or fricative [β] depending on their position. Neutralization took hold in the 16th century.

The development f-> / h- /> / Ø /

Latinisms with f- were also in old Spanish with f- written (z. B. forte > fuerte "strong", farina > farina "flour"). The sound [f] was also used. However, in addition to the [f] there was another sound that was reproduced with the letter f , namely the so-called aspirated [h]. [f] was used before the sound [w], as in [fwérte], and before the phoneme / r /, as in [frío]. In all other cases the aspirated [h] was used, as in [harína] or [hórno]. All of these words were written with f- : fuerte “strong”, frío “cold”, farina “flour”, forno “oven”.
The complementary distribution of the two sounds changed with the growing number of Latinisms since the 12th century. As a result, [f] was also used before vowels, in other words in all those cases in which normally only the aspirated [h] was used; z. B. the word forma , [hórma] spoken, meant "shoe last" in old Spanish. From Latin, however, the same word forma was added that, [fórma] spoken, but had a completely different meaning, namely "form".
This situation favored a change in the spelling system in Middle Spanish. Since the end of the 15th century, these words were also spelled as they were pronounced, such as horma (/ hórma / “shoe last”) and forma (/ fórma / “form”). In other old Spanish words, too, the f- before vowel was replaced by h- , e.g. B. fijo > hijo "son", fazer > hacer "make", forno > horno "oven", while fuerte "strong", fuente "source" etc. retained the old spelling. Despite the change in spelling, f- was favored in the literature for a long time. In the language of law, it can be proven even into the 17th century; z. B. fallar ("to make a judgment") and hallar were used synonymously.
The aspirated [h] spread between the 13th and 16th centuries, but it fell silent from Burgos and other parts of Old Castile . Although the sound was no longer spoken from the 1560s, the letter remained in the spelling: harina / arína /, horno / órno / etc.

The development of the sibilants

Phonetic changes in the Spanish sibilants over time. The development from the 14th to the 17th century is shown .

[s 1 ] = voiceless apicoalveolar fricative
[s 2 ] = voiceless predorsodental fricative

Bubble legend :
Above: Spain in general
Below: Andalusia, Canary Islands, Hispanoamerica

In Old Spanish, the sibilants, the so-called sibilants , were pronounced at three places of articulation (dental, alveolar, prepalatal) and two types of articulation ( affricative , fricative ). There was also a voiceless and a voiced variant of the affricates and the fricatives :

  • the dental affricates / ts / and / dz /
  • the alveolar fricatives / s / and / z /
  • the prepalatal fricatives / ʃ / and / ʒ /

In Central Spanish, the sibilant system was simplified: it went through three phases of development from the 15th century.
In the first step, the dental affricates / ts / and / dz / became the fricatives / z̪ / and / s̪ /, which simplified the pronunciation of the two consonants. The sibilant system thus comprised six fricatives:

  • the dental fricatives / s̪ / and / z̪ /
(/ s̪ /: dental, like este ; / z̪ /: dental, like diez )
  • the alveolar fricatives / s / and / z /
  • the prepalatal fricatives / ʃ / and / ʒ /

In the second step, the voiced fricatives / z̪ /, / z /, and / ʒ / were denied, i.e. H. the voiced phonemes were dropped and only the voiceless fricatives / s̪ /, / s /, and / ʃ / remained. The sibilant system was thus reduced to three voiceless fricatives:

  • the dental fricative / s̪ /
  • the alveolar fricative / s /
  • the prepalatal fricative / ʃ /

Very similar phonemes (/ s̪ /, / s /, / ʃ /) were created with the de-donation, which could easily be exchanged and produced many minimal pairs that were difficult to distinguish in pronunciation . In order to be able to distinguish between similar sounding words such as B. caça ("hunt"), casa ("house") and caxa ("box"), the phonetic difference between the three phonemes was initially emphasized more strongly when speaking. Based on this, the articulation location of two phonemes changed in the last phase: the dental fricative / s̪ / became the interdental fricative / θ / and the prepalatal fricative / ʃ / the velar fricative / x /. This development continued from the late 16th century until 1650. The new pronunciation already corresponded to that of modern Spanish, even if the letters z. Some of them did not match today's spelling:

  • / káθa /: Middle Spanish: caça > modern Spanish: caza "hunting"
  • / Kása / Medium Spanish: casa > modern Spanish: casa "house"
  • / káxa /: Middle Spanish: caxa > modern Spanish: caja "box"

morphology

pronoun

  • In Old Spanish, a distinction was made between the confidential tú ("you") and the formal vos ("you"). In the 15th century, vos lost its status as a polite form of address. There was a complete convergence of tú and vos . In place of vos occurred for the polite form of address now usted a short form, of vuestra Merced ( "your Grace"; sanded to vuesarced , voacé , vucé and finally usted ) with the third, Personal form is used of the verb.
  • Vos and nos were replaced as subject pronouns by vosotros ("you") and nosotros ("we"). Since vos was only used in the singular due to the equation with tú , it was replaced in the plural by vosotros . For the sake of regularity, nos also changed to nosotros .
  • Vos was also replaced as an object pronoun by os ("you").
  • The old Spanish form of the dative pronoun ge was redesigned in connection with the accusative pronoun lo or la to se (e.g. ge lo di > se lo di "I gave it to him / her / them").
  • The demonstrative pronouns aqueste and este (“this”) as well as aquesse and ese (“that”) were used synonymously.
  • The relative pronoun quien was originally unchangeable. In Middle Spanish , it took the plural form quienes .

Verbs

The conjugations in Middle Spanish still showed a lot of variation. But already at the beginning of the 17th century most of today's forms prevailed.

  • Regularization of the irregular verbs of the 1st person singular present indicative:
só > soy from ser "to be"
vo > voy from ir "to go"
esto > estoy of estar "are"
dó > doy from dar "to give"
cayo > caigo from caer "to fall"
trayo > traigo from traer "bring"
conosco > "know" conozco from conocer etc.
  • In Old Spanish, the verb endings of the 2nd person plural had an intervowel -d- (e.g. cantades "you sings" from cantar ), which was dropped in the course of the 15th century. The intervocal -d- was replaced by a hiat ( cantades > cantaes ). The hiat was in turn replaced by diphthong and monophthong forms, which competed until around 1550 ( cantaes > cantáis / cantás ). Finally, today's diphthong forms prevailed among the verbs in -ar and -er . These differed more clearly from those of the 2nd person singular. The monophthongic form was only retained for the verbs ending in -ir (e.g. salís “you go out” from salir ). Verbs whose endings were stressed on the third to last syllable did not initially affect the loss of the intervowel -d- . What is meant are the past tense indicative ( cantávades , instead of modern cantábais ), the past tense subjunctive ( cantássedes , instead of modern cantáseis ), the future subjunctive ( cantáredes , instead of modern cantárais ) and the conditional ( cantaríades / cantaríedes , instead of modern cantaríais ). These forms were used in literature well into the 17th century.
  • In the 16th century, the old Spanish separation of the future tense still occurred, but mostly in connection with an object pronoun that positioned itself between the two elements. In the 17th century, the separate variant was largely abandoned. Instead, a uniform form was created, which was composed of the infinitive and the future tense ending; z. B. besar te he > te besaré “I'll kiss you”.
In the conditional, too, the infinitive became the root of the word; z. B. debría > debería from deber “debt”.
  • In the late 16th century the stems of the irregular verbs in the future tense were regulated:
verné > vendré “I'll come” from venir
terné > tendré “I will have” from tener
  • The forms hemos and avemos as well as heis and avéis of the auxiliary verb aver were each used synonymously.
  • The verb ir (“to go”) had different forms in the subjunctive. Vayamos and vamos and vayáis and vais were each used synonymously.

items

  • The article was dropped in connection with a possessive pronoun; z. B. la mi gloria > mi gloria "my glory".
  • The old form ell disappeared and was replaced by el ; z. B. ell alma > el alma "the soul".
  • La replaces el as a feminine article (e.g. el espada > la espada "the sword"), except in front of words with a- in the beginning (e.g. el altura "the height", el águila "the eagle").

syntax

  • In Central Spanish the leísmo was widespread, i. H. the use of le not only as a dative pronoun, but also instead of lo as an accusative pronoun . However, the leísmo was mainly used in relation to people. For things one still used lo :
le veo "I see him" ( le veo a Juan "I see Juan": a was only in front of the accusative)
lo veo "I see it"
The leísmo was less common in the plural. In these cases, sat down going against les by.
  • The positioning of the object pronouns in the sentence differed from today's usage. In modern Spanish, the pronoun comes after the imperative, the infinitive and the gerund. In the 16th and 17th centuries, just the opposite was the case; z. B. Middle Spanish : la espada me da , modern Spanish: dame la espada "give me the sword".
There were only two exceptions where the pronoun was after the verb: at the beginning of the sentence and in compound tenses after the participle, but only if the participle did not immediately follow the auxiliary verb; z. B. Yo os he sustendado a vos y sacádo os de las cárceles “I defended you and saved you from prison”.
  • In Old Spanish, the two verbs aver and tener were synonyms. Both meant "have, have". In the course of the 16th century, aver lost its function as a main verb, so that only tener was available for the meaning. Aver became a general auxiliary verb in compound tenses with a participle. It replaced the auxiliary verb ser , which was used in intransitive and reflexive verbs. In addition, the participle became invariable in conjunction with aver ; z. B. son idos > han ido “they have gone”.
  • The verb form in -ra (e.g. cantara ) originally referred to the past perfect indicative. In Middle Spanish, however , the -ra form was used less and less in this function and was actually only found in texts. In addition to the prematurity, the -ra form was also used in the conditional, but also limited in this function. In contrast to the indicative and conditional, the -ra form prevailed in the subjunctive. It became synonymous with the -se form in the past tense subjunctive. Both forms still exist today in parallel; z. B. si pudiera / pudiese, lo haría “if I could, I would do it”.
  • Up until the 17th century there was no division of functions between ser and estar . Both verbs were used equally in place ( es / está aquí “he is here”) and in the passive voice ( es / está escrito “it is written”).
  • Many Latinisms have been adopted into the Spanish language since the late Middle Ages . This also included syntactic borrowings ; z. B. some authors put the verb at the end of the sentence in their texts.

Lexicons

Cultural, political and military contacts with neighboring countries resulted in numerous borrowings from European languages ​​into Spanish vocabulary.

  • The renaissance that started in Italy reached Spain along with humanistic ideas in the late Middle Ages. This led to an intensive preoccupation with ancient Greece and Rome. The consequence of this cultural trend were numerous loans from Italian, Latin and Greek. Italian mainly provided terms from art and literature. Borrowings from Latin were particularly numerous. The Graecisms mainly refer to different areas of science.
Italianisms: busto "bust", diseño "draft", modelo "model", balcón "balcony", fachada "facade", piano "piano", concierto "concert", novela "novel", soneta "sonnet" etc.
Latinisms: ambición "ambition", aplauso "applause", concepto "concept", decoro "decency", emular "emulate", inmóvil "motionless", superstición "superstition" etc.
Gräzismen: dose "Dose" esqueleto "skeleton", Sintoma "Symptoms" elipse "Ellipse" geografía "Geography" horizons "horizon" democracia "democracy" economía "economy" etc.
  • Many words from the field of court life are borrowed from French:
dama "lady", paje "page", gala "(festive) dresses", moda "fashion", jardín "garden", parque "park", sumiller "palace official" etc.
In the course of armed conflicts, all military terms were also adopted:
barricada "barricade", batallón "battalion", caliber "caliber", coronel "colonel", tropa "troop" etc.
  • Although Portugal and Spain are immediately adjacent to each other, relatively few words have been borrowed from Portuguese. Most of these relate to the sea and shipping:
buzo "diver", cachalote "sperm whale", cantil "rock reef", garúa "fog", monzón "monsoon", ostra "oyster", pleamar "flood" etc.
The Portuguese also come from:
mermelada "jam", enfadarse "get angry", ledo "happy", afeitar "shave" etc.

With the conquest and colonization of America, many words borrowed from the Amerindian languages ​​found their way into the Spanish vocabulary. These are mainly names for the peoples and tribes, the animals and plants and other things of the New World that the Europeans did not know until then. Most of the loans come from the languages ​​of the Caribbean, Carib and Arawak , Nahuatl (Mexico) and Quechua (Andean region).

  • Carib: caníbal "cannibal", loro "parrot", mico "monkey" etc.
  • Arawak: bohío "straw hut", cacique "chief", canoa "canoe", huracán "hurricane" etc.
  • Nahuatl: aguacate "avocado", cacao "cocoa", chicle "chewing gum", coyote " coyote ", chocolate "chocolate", tomato "tomato" etc.
  • Quechua: alpaca "alpaca", cóndor "condor", llama "lama", soroche "altitude sickness" etc.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 265, 291
  2. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 408
  3. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 291
  4. ↑ Old Spanish from around 1200 to around 1450 and New Spanish from around 1650
  5. ^ Bollée 2003: 81
  6. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 408
  7. ↑ Bollée 2003: 108 f.
  8. ↑ Penny 1995: 16 f.
  9. ^ Bollée 2003: 109
  10. ^ Lloyd 1989: 503
  11. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 368
  12. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 370, 372 f.
  13. ^ Penny 1995: 85
  14. ^ Penny 1995: 79, 91
  15. ^ Lloyd 1989: 515
  16. ^ Penny 1995: 91
  17. ^ Penny 1995: 81, 91
  18. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 280, 368
  19. ↑ Penny 1995: 81 f.
  20. ^ Penny 1995: 86
  21. ^ Penny 1995: 86 f.
  22. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 11 f.
  23. ↑ Penny 1995: 87 f.
  24. ^ Penny 1995: 88
  25. ↑ Penny 1995: 124 f.
  26. ^ Penny 1995: 124
  27. ↑ Lapesa 1980: 280
  28. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 397
  29. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 397
  30. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 397
  31. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 394 f.
  32. ^ Penny 1995: 138
  33. ^ Lloyd 1989: 571
  34. ↑ Penny 1995: 138 f.
  35. ^ Lloyd 1989: 573
  36. ^ Penny 1995: 174
  37. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 392
  38. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 392
  39. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 395
  40. ↑ Lapesa 1995: 395
  41. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 281
  42. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 281
  43. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 391
  44. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 405 f.
  45. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 407f.
  46. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 398-400
  47. ↑ Penny 1995: 171 f.
  48. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 400 f.
  49. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 407
  50. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 265 f.
  51. ^ Penny 1995: 234
  52. ^ Penny 1995: 211
  53. ^ Penny 1995: 213
  54. ↑ Penny 1995: 234 f.
  55. ^ Penny 1995: 211
  56. ^ Penny 1995: 214
  57. ^ Penny 1995: 226
  58. ^ Penny 1995: 226
  59. ^ Penny 1995: 233
  60. ↑ Lapesa 1988: 412
  61. ^ Penny 1995: 228
  62. ^ Penny 1995: 229
  63. ^ Penny 1995: 229
  64. ^ Penny 1995: 229
  65. ^ Penny 1995: 229